review | el camion, brewer street soho

when i heard that millenium hotels were looking for reviewers for their new blogger's guide to london for 2015, i knew i had to get involved. coupled with small business saturday and my killer craving for decent mexican food, i also knew exactly where i wanted to go; el camion mexicano, on brewer street in soho. well, more to the point, i really wanted to check out their downstairs tequila bar called pink chihuahua (for obvious reasons), since reading about it in the evening standard mag a few weeks ago. i just love it when the fates align...

we headed in for an early dinner, and took our seats in one of the restaurant's spacious booths. i was instantly enamoured by the décor - it was all so eclectic, and added so much to the whole baja-californian ambience in the restaurant. we poured over the drinks menus first, and settled on a couple of margaritas to get the party started. the wait staff were super friendly, and gave us their recommendations and favourites from the drinks menu, to help us on our way... like we ever needed help.

when i came to ordering our food, we really were stumped. there was just so much to choose from, and so in the end we decided a sharing platter would be the best way to sample a bit of everything we wanted to eat. the platter came with three tacos, three quesedillas, three tostadas, and three jaladas so we ordered a mixture of chicken, pulled pork, chorizo, and bell peppers; a little bit of everything to sample, and then we also ordered a second, then third round of drinks, to wash it all down.

we'd planned to take our drinks downstairs into pink chihuahua, but when we asked about doing that, were given the unfortunate news that the bar wasn't going to be open for a few more hours; a blown fuse meant that there were no lights working below the restaurant (including the toilets, ahaha), and the bar would stay closed until someone was able to come and fix it. i was gutted! as much as we were there for the food, i really wanted to check out the bar! well, this just means that i will have to pop back another time...

the mini tacos and chicken tostadas were my favourites for sure. the tacos were like little piles of pulled pork heaven, topped with guacamole and coriander, and piled carefully atop a soft tortilla foundation. familiar with the pork pibill at wahaca? similar. delicious. the chicken tostada was a similar set up, but instead of soft shell, it was crunchy and delicious, and they were filled with salad and topped with cheese as well. so yum.

the chorizo quesedillas tasted a lot like pepperoni pizza, which was awesome. weird, but awesome and so damn tasty. i didn't taste the jaladas because sadly i can't eat green pepper, but ben tells me they were pretty tasty too. from what i gather, they're green peppers stuffed with soft cheese and then crumbed and fried. which... sounds incredible.our last round of drinks lasted faaaar too long, and you can tell by that picture of that kid's displeased face that he was, well, displeased at my selection. to be fair, it was a bad call ordering a daquiri on one of the coldest days of all time. but, live and learn. twenty minutes into starting it, i asked for a bigger straw because the drink was so damn icy that the teeny tiny straw that came standard issue with the drink was totally pointless. except for that time i tried to use the two tiny straws as chop sticks to pick the ice out of the drink. and that other time that ben tried to warm the drink with the table candle. as soon as the bigger straw came, so did the brain freeze because i tried to finish that bastard so fast, just so he would stop moaning. it worked, thanks for asking.

i am a mega mexican-food fan. el mega. and el camion is definitely now my new favourite place to eat said food. so, if you're ever stuck for a feed in soho - no matter what time of day (they offer a late-night take away service too!), then i can highly recommend el camion as a fail safe option to keep you el happy.